Luxembourg still owns 34 percent of BGL BNP Paribas, which
it acquired in the first government attempt to rescue Fortis in
2008 by converting 2.5 billion euros ($3.3 billion) of debt into
equity of Fortis’s local banking subsidiary. The Grand Duchy
raised 2 billion euros from the sale of a 3.75 percent bond that
matures on Dec. 4, 2013, to help finance the transaction.

“The Luxembourg state is prepared to withdraw as a
shareholder of BGL at that point,” Prime Minister Jean-Claude
Juncker told lawmakers in the parliament yesterday. “If at the
end of the year or early next year the price is right, so if we
get the amount from BNP Paribas that we would see appropriate,
then we will sell.”

BNP Paribas SA, based in Paris, controls BGL BNP Paribas
through its Belgian unit BNP Paribas Fortis SA. The largest
French bank also bought a direct stake of almost 16 percent in
BGL from the Luxembourg government in an all-share transaction
in May 2009 that gave the country a 1 percent holding in BNP
Paribas.

BGL BNP Paribas had shareholders’ equity of 5.59 billion
euros at the end of 2012, according to its annual report. Pretax
profit rose to 460.4 million euros last year from 322.4 million
euros in 2011.